Poverty and Education


Presentation Day:

CI, LOI and SQ in PPT
Reflection & Responsibility in Poster
Causation & Function in Poem
Connection in PPT
Form & Perpective in Video
Change in Pictures/Photos (iPhoto)

SMART Problem:

Poor public schools in the district of Ventanilla don’t have high quality resources because the government doesn’t give enough money and they can’t afford it.

Student Questions:

1. How does poverty affect learning? (Perspective) - Seong Yeon
2. What is the government doing to reduce illiteracy? (Responsibility) - Gonzalo M
3. What district in Lima has the most schools in need? (Form) - Emile
4. How can we help schools in need? (Reflection) - Micaela
5. What type of books do children of 5-7 years read? (Form) - Seong Yeon
6. What is an effective way of teaching children to read? (Function) Micaela
7. How does Kantaya connect to education? (connection)
8. What can be a sustainable action plan to help Kantaya? (Change)

Q: How does Poverty affect learning? (Seong Yeon Cho)
  • Poor children who don't eat in their homes because they din't have can't pay attention in their class, because they are hungry in class
  • Poverty lead children to low self-esteem
  • If there is poverty at home, children don't(can't) participate at some activities like teamwork
  • The environment at home and at school is not good for kids to study, or learn
  • Poor kids go to poor public schools, and the teachers in the poor public schools don't teach well, because they are not trained well to be a teacher
  • Lack of materials: books, chairs, desks, papers, pencils, etc., and bad environment like light, teachers, the class is dirty, etc.
  • Poor public schools may have the same amount of time in school like us, but they might play more than learning more in school, and they wouldn't have a good education from teachers
  • Malnutrition: When poor children were a baby, their parents were also poor, and they didn't have money to feed their baby. And when they grew up, their brain didn't develop to learn better than when they were young.
  • Their parents are also illiterate, and they can't help their children do their homework, or tell them what children don't understand when they're reading something

Summary:
Poverty affects learning in many different ways. First, when a child goes to a school that has dirty classes, no bathrooms, no desks or proper materials for them to work, it affects their learning because they can't concentrate or work properly. Some schools in Ventanilla don't have good materials like desks, chairs, pencils, papers, books, etc. They also don't have after school activities for them to play sports, dance and be healthy. Some teachers in poor schools are not trained well, and they don't teach children in a correct way. Other children might go to a school that has good materials and good teachers, they might be hungry, because they don't have money at home to eat 3 nutritious meals everyday. Nutrition is very important because their brain needs to develop, and they need enough energy to work and pay attention in class. 40% of the children in Ventanilla have health problems. 58% are suffering from malnutrition. Children, because of all these problems, can have low self-esteem. They notice that other children's clothes are better than theirs, and they might have more opportunities than the ones they have. Poverty also affects their learning at home. When they get home they have assignments from school to do and they can't do them because they are responsible for doing chores at home while their parents are not there. Some children have to take care of their younger siblings, cook, clean, etc. One last way poverty affects learning is that some parents are illiterate and they can't help the children with their assignments, so they might not have the support and reinforcement they need at home.

Sources:
  1. http://www.enotes.com/soc/discuss/how-does-poverty-affect-education-64257
  2. Interview - USAID

Q. What is the government doing to reduce illiteracy? How can we support that? Gonzalo

A. During the last government of Alan Garcia, the Programa Nacional de Movilizacion por la Alfabetizacion was created in order to help reduce illiteracy in the country.
The objectives of this program are:
1. To help 2 million illiterate peruvians reach the reading, writing and basic math abilities in no more than 5 years.
2. To reduce illiteracy in the country below 4%.
3. To declare Peru, a country free of illiteracy.

The main beneficiaries will be men and women 15 years or older that still haven't obtained these abilities. Near 75% are women and 87% of the total live in rural areas. This people are invited to participate in special Literacy Circles where they will learn to read, write and some basic math. The program explains them the importance of reading and convinces them to go.
The PRONAMA will also act in Lima, because there is still a considerable amount of people who do not know how to read and write. It is estimated that 2,170 people of a total of 24,237 illiterates will attend the program.
We can support this program, first by knowing it exists and raising awareness about the illiteracy problem in our country. We can also sign up as a volunteer in the centers where they are teaching people to read and write. The risk of this effort is that the new literates need to practice what they have learned or they will soon forget it. Here is where we can support the problem, by getting this people to practice their reading and writing so they will not forget.

Bibliography: http://www.alfa.minedu.gob.pe
http://www.ugel07.gob.pe

Which district in Lima has the most schools in need? (Emile) Form
According to the USAID most schools in need are mostly around Lima. They also said that there are schools in need in Callao. They said that in Lima most of the schools in need are in the district of Ventanilla. There is an organization that works in Ventanilla with children in extreme poverty called Kantaya and we can support them. This is because these are the poorest areas. In these places there isn't a good environment because there is a lot of violence and drug trafficking. 36% of these childre live with only one parent, 4% are raised by a relative. 100% of the parents have a temp job.

Sources: USAID

How can we help schools in need? (Micaela Rizo Patron)
  • Donate materials
  • Train teachers
  • Better nutrition
  • Materials: Tables, books, chairs, shelfs (School resources)

Summary:
Some schools don't have enough materials and trained teachers to have a good quality of education. A lot of schools in need are in Ventanilla, they don't have enough materials to work and their teachers are not well trained. Our poverty group can raise money and buy materials like books and shelves, and maybe if we have money left, we can buy tables and chairs. If we buy pencils and erasers, it will not be sustainable because the pencils are sharpened and they don't last very long and the erasers also get erased and don't last very long for it to be sustainable. So the best thing we could donate would be books for the children to read and we could train the teachers to teach kids more effectively and then, they would have the books to read and for them to improve their reading.
Sources: USAID

What is the reality of the children in Ventanilla? (Form)
40% of the children in Ventanilla are more than a year behind in their education. Kantaya is an organization that is supporting them by building "Casitas Felices". Casita Feliz is place where they help the kids in Ventanilla learn handicrafts and support them with their homework. They hire dance teachers to teach them how to dance. They teach children between 5 to 16 years old, and support approximately 100 children every month, 5 times a week. They receive school materials like backpacks, notebooks, pencils and get money from entities that want to help, so they can pay teachers, do Christmas shows, and they raise money from donations that come from the sales of plays or movie tickets.

What type of books do children of 5-7 years read?
  • Books with a lot of pictures (picture books)
  • Books that don't have cursive letters (for Ms. Mariella's students)
  • Books that have easy words

Sources: Ms. Mariella - Interview

Summary:
Children that are 5-7 years old like to read books that have a lot of pictures (picture books), because when they don't understand the text. They can understand what the story is about from looking at the pictures. They also like books that don't have cursive letters because children learn by reading and writing print. Children also like books that have easy words, because children in age of 5-7 years don't learn complicated words. Words should be repetitive like the Dr. Seuss books. I think that the books depend on the grade level and how good their level of reading is.

What is an effective way of teaching children to read? Function (Micaela)
  • Teacher is motivator
  • Look for the kids attention
  • Fun way of learning
  • Connection with life
  • Materials that are visual
  • Students are also motivator on learning
  • Interesting books

Summary:
An effective way of teaching children to read is reading in a fun way. The teacher needs to be motivator. When they are reading a story they can show them with puppets. You need to get the kids' attention. Maybe you can also make connections with your life so they learn through connecting to what they already know and experience. The teacher could act out the story for example: "The kid is jumping out of happiness!" and the teacher is jumping with a smile and her face to make it fun for the kids. Also, when you need to learn a letter and how to use it, you can sing a song or a rap like for example M: "Michael the mice lived in a mountain with only a meat to eat with his mommy." You can teach a kid how to read in many ways you only have catch their attention so they are not bored.

How does Kantaya connect to education? (connection) Emile
Kantaya connects to education because they help kids after they go to school. this connects to education because they help them with their homework and at the same time they have a lot of fun. It is like a day care and a tutor at the same time!!

Q: What can be a sustainable action plan to help Kantaya? (change)Gonzalo
A sustainable action plan could be if I tell my dad to donate fruit to Kantaya and that is very sustainable because they would be healthy and with energy. Another idea could be donate money for Casita Feliz 3 because the roof isn't done yet.